Behavior of Phenols in MSF Desalination Plant and Its Simulation

Abstract

It is very important to investigate the behavior and the distribution of volatile polluting materials in seawater in an MSF desalination plant.
In this work, the behavior of phenols (phenol,o-cresol and m-cresol) in a five-stage flash evaporator was examined, and the numerical model in order to simulate the behavior was constructed by using the vapor-liquid equilibrium data of phenols-water system and the material balance.
The experimental result in the five-stage flash evaporator showed that phenols were concentrated into the distilled water in the following order:o-cresol>m-cresol>phenol.
The result of the simulation by this model was coincident with the experimental values in the five-stage and 39-stage plants. If the vapor-liquid equilibrium of other volatile polluting materials in seawater is measured, their behaviors and the distribution in the MSF desalination plant could be simulated by this numerical model.